Adoption Promotion & Support

Deliverables for this Adoption Support Program include training and consultation, and content development for adoption support activities from Ginny Sprang, PhD, LCSW, and Associate Director, Adrienne Whitt-Woosley, LCSW. Ginny Sprang, Ph.D., LCSW is a Professor at the University of Kentucky, and has over 25 years of clinical experience with children and families. Dr. Sprang is recognized as an international expert in child welfare, child maltreatment, and child traumatic stress, and is executive director of the UK Center for Trauma and Children (CTAC). Adrienne Whitt-Woosley, LCSW has 14 years of clinical experience in the areas of child welfare practice, clinical decision-making, and child and adult mental health. Through this program, Dr. Sprang and Ms. Whitt-Woosley provide services to DCBS workers and foster/adoptive parents with the goal of creating adoption stability and permanency. As an added goal in 2014-2015, Dr. Sprang and Ms. Whitt-Woosley will provide specialized training to PCC workers who are serving adoptive families who are parenting trauma-exposed, abused children. Goals of this training will be to improve competency in assessing for trauma symptoms and conditions, and working with adoptive family members to interact with these children in a trauma-informed manner. Adoption support services involve a one-of-a-kind collaborative approach where the DCBS case managers and supervisors, foster/adoptive parents and community-based service providers are invited to work with the mental health experts at the Center on Trauma and Children (CTAC) to formulate the best plans possible for treatment and placement preservation. These cases include those that have experienced repeated placement and treatment failures, and in which DCBS is requesting assistance with more complex and integrated planning and resource coordination. Because of specialized, faculty expertise, over the past 13 years this program has had great success with developing strategies and resources to support Kentucky’s previously declared “un-adoptable” children and their families. We have been able to find effective treatment plans and secure permanency for these children and families because of our expertise in evidence-based practices to promote recovery from childhood abuse and neglect and to help families develop healthy attachment relationships. The University of Kentucky utilizes Subrecipient for grants.